Hailey shook her head. “Nope. I’m impervious to his immature charm.” She turned to Holly. “I mean, it hits me, but it just ricochets off my shell.”
“You and your shell—weirdo.”
Chapter three
Vanished
“Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.” - Montaigne
Hailey frowned, running her hand across the cold wrought iron as they passed through the cemetery gates. A menacing oak, abnormally large with octopus branches skimming the ground, squatted nearby. It groaned in the wind as they passed.
“You want to go first or should I?” Hailey asked as they crested the hill.
Holly opened the whiskey. “You go chat with Mom, and I’ll raise a glass with Dad.”
Hailey settled on her knees in the grass, pulling a few clovers as she gathered her thoughts.
Standing next to her, Holly held the bottle high. “Here’s to you, Dad.Sláinte.” She stared at the sky for a moment, and then she poured a healthy dose on the ground, took a swig, and held the bottle out to Hailey.
“Amen.” Hailey crossed herself and stood with her sister, taking just one molecule of the rusty nail juice and handing it back to Holly, who drizzled the rest over their parents’ graves.
Hailey stared at their headstones, mentally willing an image that wouldn’t come, wishing she had a photo—just one— of Mom and Dad, but the fire had taken those too.
“I can’tremember what they looked like anymore.”
“You were only five when they died, Hailey.”
She looked up, frowning. “Do you ever think about that night?”
“Of course.” Holly sighed, tipping her head at Hailey. She patted the necklace she always wore. “Every time I look at this.”
“Mom’s necklace.” Hailey smiled. It was an heirloom charm—nothing valuable, just a shiny black stone in the shape of a heart. Hailey’s mother had originally given the necklace to her. But on the night of the fire, Hailey had given the necklace to Holly for comfort, and Holly had worn it ever since.
Hailey drew a courageous breath. She hated to bring up the creatures that killed their parents—she felt like they were always listening—but she really needed to talk this out.
“Do you remember the purple eyes?”
“Don’t tell me you still think the monsters from your nightmares started the fire. Hailey—”
“Envoys, Holly. They’re called Envoys—you can say the name—and I know what I saw.”
“A lot of people think they see things when they’re scared.” Now she sounded uneasy, and she was definitely giving Hailey the stop-talking-now stare, which, of course, Hailey ignored.
“I know you saw him too—”
“And if you keep talking about Envoys,” Holly continued, “people are always going to think you’re weird.”
Hailey pressed her lips together and nodded, but the Envoys had been showing up in her dreams again— a lot. Lately, she’d seen quite a bit of one Envoy in particular—a very kind one, thankfully. Oh, she couldn’t remember his name. That, like so many other details, evaporated as soon as her alarm went off.
Not that Holly cared. She was blank-staring at their Mom’s marker, no doubt lost in her own thoughts. But then the church bells clanged, and she jerked her head up. She flicked her eyes at her cell phone.
“Oh, crap,the time! Hailey, we have to go, we’re late for dinner.”
Both girls took off running and barreled into the pub just as the cook, Mrs. Lash, placed the first plates in the pick-up window.
Holly shoved her hands under the faucet behind the bar, and Fin threw a towel playfully in her face.
“You’re late,” he droned, and Holly smiled, grabbing three plates from the window and hurrying them into the dining room. Hailey grabbed another three and followed.
